


of liberation and relief

by DreamBrother



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Episode: s10e22 Aloha (Goodbye), F/M, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, POV Tani Rey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:41:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24742474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamBrother/pseuds/DreamBrother
Summary: "Boss?" Tani whispered, just about able to make out the sharp outlines of Steve's form in the dim light of the room. It was early evening, but she figured the nurses had reduced the harsh glare of fluorescent lighting to aid Danny into a restful and healing sleep."Not right now, Tani. The doctor said you guys can visit once Danny is more stable," Steve replied, his voice low but carrying to where she was poking her head through the hospital room doorway."Yeah...I'm not here for him."A missing scene from the finale; Tani POV.
Relationships: Junior Reigns/Tani Rey, Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Comments: 40
Kudos: 230





	of liberation and relief

**Author's Note:**

> This was a distraction from writing my Big Bang fic. Nothing quite like having other work due to make me do something completely different. 
> 
> For those waiting for my WIPs to update, July will be the key, as my work finishes for the summer in a fortnight. 
> 
> The title is a mistaken lyric from Crowded House's Don't Dream It's Over lol.

"Boss?" Tani whispered, just about able to make out the sharp outlines of Steve's form in the dim light of the room. It was early evening, but she figured the nurses had reduced the harsh glare of fluorescent lighting to aid Danny into a restful and healing sleep. 

"Not right now, Tani. The doctor said you guys can visit once Danny is more stable," Steve replied, his voice low but carrying to where she was poking her head through the hospital room doorway.

"Yeah...I'm not here for him."

"What?" Steve finally tore his eyes away from where they'd been fixed on Danny's sleeping form to cast a sharp look in her direction over his shoulder, and had it been her first few months working with McGarrett, she may have taken an involuntary step back. Except she was a seasoned member of Five-O now, and nothing, not even McGarrett, would come between her and what was best for her team. 

"Junior and I stopped by your house, fed Eddie. I got you a change of clothes. Thought maybe Danny might like to see you in something that's not covered in his blood?" She opened the door wider but remained standing in the doorway, a backpack in her hands. 

Steve blinked, his eyes dropping down to his blue button-down that still had red smears all over it. Tani didn't even want to think about what stains those black cargo pants were hiding. Realizing she would have to push, Tani jiggled the backpack. "Um, you could freshen up in there, maybe?" She pointed to the bathroom attached to Danny's private hospital room. She knew she almost had Steve, so she continued: "I'll sit with Danny, in case he wakes up." 

Because that was at the heart of it all, wasn't it? What had led Steve to basically get into his Silverado that still had Danny's bloodstains on the backseat the moment Daiyu Mei and her accomplices had been cuffed and handed over to HPD to drive straight back to the hospital, leaving the rest of Five-O to handle the scene and the procedures after. What had an HPD officer posted outside Danny's door the minute he had been moved out of the post-surgical recovery room. And Tani was fairly sure Steve had made Duke Lukela himself take up the position at Danny’s bedside until Steve could return. 

Steve remained motionless for a long while, long enough to make Tani wonder if he was hoping that by ignoring her, she would feel awkward and retreat. It was as though Steve didn't know her at all. 

But eventually, there was a deep sign heralding her victory yet she could take no pleasure in it as she watched her boss's shoulders slump, exhaustion and pain evident in every part of him that she could see. Stepping forward she stood just behind where he sat in the chair, holding up the backpack in his line of sight as her hand came to rest on his shoulder. 

"I'll be here the whole time, boss, I'll keep an eye on him. You go wash up." 

Fingers that had been covered in Danny's blood just hours ago curled around the backpack. "If anything changes…"

"I'll get the doc straight away," Tani promised, not daring to offer a meaningless platitude like "nothing will happen" or "he's fine, Steve." Not when Danny's continued existence was a minor miracle in itself, not when the day had been a vision of hell itself, especially for her boss. 

With a grunt, Steve stood up, took the backpack off her and moved towards the en-suite bathroom, but not before taking a good look at the monitors surrounding the bed as the door closed behind him, concealing him from view. 

Tani sat down in the vacated chair, taking a deep breath before looking at Danny fully for the first time since last night, when he'd knocked on her office door to say good night before he headed home, Steve waving a hand from where he stood by the glass doors waiting for Danny so they could drive home together. 

A weight that had been pressing down on her since early this morning when she'd received the phone call from Steve as she had walked into HQ with Junior by her side finally lifted as she watched Danny breathe, despite the nasal cannula that still assisted his breathing. She winced in sympathy at the deep cut on his swollen lip and the bruises marring the entire left side of his face, and she couldn't help but reach out and wrap her hand around his where it lay on the bed, a finger gently caressing the bruises around his wrist left by the shackles. 

Logically, she had known Danny would not walk away from the abduction free of injuries. Steve's tone as he'd called and asked her to look at the camera footage had been enough of a warning sign to know it was going to be a day from hell, but then there'd been the camera footage showing Danny's car being fired upon. Her stomach had twisted when she'd seen the man she considered her mentor, and even more so a friend, be pulled out of his own car with his arms raised high so the masked gunman would have no reason to shoot even as a black bag was forced over his head as he was shoved into a car and driven away. But then had come the phone call from Daiyu Mei, Tani only able to whisper "oh God" when they'd been shown Danny, bloodied, his arms chained to the ceiling, as proof of life, seeing Steve's knees almost buckle as she stood next to him yet hesitant to reach out and offer comfort. 

How could she, when experience had taught her that it was very unlikely that Danny would survive this? How could she have offered meaningless words of reassurance to Steve that the person he loved most wasn't going to die today at the hands of the very same people who'd killed his father? She'd understood why he hadn't negotiated or tried to put together a crazy plan to rescue Danny, unable to sympathize with Adam shaking his head in despair after he'd followed Steve to the elevator in a fruitless attempt to talk him out of going to the meet alone. 

The wait for Steve's phone call with the address had been excruciating, even as the entire rest of the Five-O sat in their cars, armed, and armored, ready for the signal to rain down fire and brimstone on the people who were keeping their Danny from them. She'd felt a beat of pleasure when it was her that Steve had called with the address, the sirens loud in the background as he conveyed the information even as she could hear the engine of the Silverado over the phone as Steve too raced towards the location. They’d made good time getting to the address, but the fear lay unspoken between her and Lou as she drove them to the address - would Danny even be alive when they got there? Steve had been five minutes away when he'd called with the info, and Tani wouldn't have been surprised that at the same time Steve had been making the call, Daiyu Mei would have made one of her own. 

Were they on a rescue mission or a recovery operation? 

Either way, it wasn’t obvious to them how long Steve had been at the location when they’d arrived, HPD units behind them trying to keep up. They’d barely had time to get out of their car before Steve had appeared supporting a bloodied Danny, Tani reacting quickest to open the truck door before jumping into the driver’s seat. She wasn’t sure how she’d known that Danny was in a bad way, but it must have been the same thing that had led Lou to be the second quickest to react, handing over a pressure pack to Steve even as he slammed the passenger door shut behind the two leaders of Five-O. 

It was only when Steve had called up the hospital that she’d learned that Danny had been shot in the chest. In that moment, she had felt the true weight of responsibility resting on her shoulders. Could she have forgiven herself if Danny had died before she had gotten them to the hospital? Would Steve have forgiven her? 

She'd been tempted to look in the rearview mirror often to check on Danny during the drive but she couldn’t risk taking her eyes off the road, not at the speed she was driving it. Except the noise of the engine hadn't been enough to drown out his hoarse breaths, each sounding painful and slow, nor could she ignore Steve's repeated murmured words of comfort as he'd held his partner in his arms. She'd understood why her boss hadn't even waited for backup to arrive before hauling Danny out of the house, why he'd made a severely injured Danny walk towards the truck - not when she was petrified herself that Danny wouldn't last the next few minutes, that they'd be arriving at the entrance to Tripler's emergency department with a lifeless body in Steve's arms. 

“You start moisturizing, babe?” The preceding slight twitch of the hand underneath hers had been enough warning that Tani didn’t jump at Danny’s mumbled words, though lost in memory she had been. 

“Hey,” Tani said softly, leaning forward, rubbing her thumb back and forth on the back of Danny’s hand as her friend blinked his eyes partly open, a wide smile on her face as Danny’s gaze settled on her. To think just a few hours ago she thought she'd never see those blue eyes again. 

“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” he mumbled and Tani grinned, happy to hear him sound so normal. “What time’sit?”

“Just after seven.” Tani frowned as Danny’s heart-rate started ticking upwards, his gaze clearing as his eyes started around the room, his chest rising and falling rapidly even though it must have hurt.

“Danny?” Tani gripped Danny’s hand tighter, looking around for the button that would beckon the nurse. “Danny, what’s wrong?’

“Steve, where’s Steve? Did something happen? Did she-,” Danny’s words were mumbled but his fear clear, his shoulders lifting from the bed as though he was intending to get up and go after the woman himself. 

“Danny, Danny, stop, you’re gonna hurt yourself,” said Tani rapidly, her hands coming to rest on Danny’s shoulders, trying to press him back without hurting him further, hoping Steve wouldn’t hear and come running out of the shower buck naked to check on his partner. “Steve’s fine, he’s just in there.” She pointed towards the bathroom where the sound of water running could just be heard. “I got him a change of clothes, he’s just freshening up. I promise he’s fine, not a scratch.”

Danny sagged under her hold, his head resting back against the pillow as his eyes closed, the strain evident on his face. Resuming her hold on Danny’s hand, Tani watched the monitors warily, pleased when the numbers started going back to what they’d been when Danny had woken up. She wasn’t as medically trained as Junior, but after Danny had been shot in quarantine she’d taken it upon herself to go to extensive first aid courses. She knew that Danny’s blood pressure and heart rate were still not quite where they should have been. The doctor had told them that he’d made it through surgery, but that the first twenty-four hours would be important. It’s why the team had yet to be allowed to see him, why Steve had been granted permission to be by his bedside throughout, just in case the worst were to happen. 

She swallowed thickly at the reminder of just how many times, and how badly, Danny had been hurt in the short while she’d known him, how easily the day could have ended differently for Five-O. 

“So you got her, then?” Danny’s voice was louder than before, a bit stronger, but it had Tani reaching for the jug of water on the bedside table anyway, pouring some into the plastic cup provided. 

“Yeah, all rounded up, she’s under heavy guard at Halawa until her trial. Everyone’s at HQ finalizing paperwork, the case is gonna be air-tight,” Tani replied as she held the straw to Danny’s lips, letting him drink his fill before he turned his head anyway to indicate he was done. “She’s never gonna get out.”

Danny huffed. “If she’s anything like her husband, I wouldn’t bet on it.” Tani frowned, now glad for the continued presence of HPD outside the room. She’d heard bits and pieces of Steve’s family history with Wo Fat, but never in-depth and detail. With Chin and Kono no longer on the island, and Lou and Adam only present for some of it, Danny was the keeper of the keys to Steve’s past, and Tani had never been one to pry, and now was definitely not the time. 

“So um, we got the CSU report from where they were keeping you. It was pretty badass, how you got out of those chains, took down four men,” Tani said. When she’d read that a pool of Danny’s blood had been found just steps away from the door leading to the outside, she’d had to run to the toilets in HQ to throw up, Junior following and holding her hair back, holding her. She couldn’t imagine how Steve must have felt, arriving on the scene to see his partner on the ground, bleeding out with a bullet wound through his chest. It angered her that the alternative option would have been a Danny dead in chains if he hadn’t gotten himself free, that they’d been _lucky_ that Danny hadn’t waited for them to get himself free, because if he’d had, his team would have been too late to save him, letting him down when he needed them the most. 

“But not the fifth,” Danny murmured, his lips tugging up before the cut reminded him it was a bad idea and Tani cursed herself for making Danny think that he was in the hospital bed because of a failing on his part. 

“Hey, had to save some for the rest of us, or else we would have felt useless.”

She knew Danny well enough to know her response would have earned her a roll of the eyes had he not been so tired, Danny’s eyes closing once again. Leaning back into the chair, Tani kept her hand on Danny’s wrist even as she heard the shower turn off in the adjacent bathroom. 

“Listen, I need you to do me a favor,” she heard Danny say after a moment. 

“Name it,” Tani replied, meaning it wholeheartedly. There was nothing Danny could ask for right now, at this moment, that she wouldn’t do for him. Babysit Charlie this weekend? Easy. Fly to California and accompany Grace back home? Done. Kill Daiyu Mei whilst she’s in custody? Between her, Quinn, Noelani, and Kamekona, sorted. 

“Could you, uh, could you and Junior crash at Steve’s whilst I’m in here?” Her confusion must have been evident on her face because Danny continued: “Don’t, ah, don’t want him going back to an empty place.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course, Danny,” Tani replied. “We got his back.”

Danny’s hand twisted underneath hers until his fingers tangled with hers. “I know you do.”

“You just focus on getting better, okay? You’re the only one who makes the office coffee the way I like it.” 

"Be back in no time," Danny mumbled, with a squeeze to her hand that was so lacking in strength that Tani had to bite her lip. "I'm proud of you, you know?"

Tani felt her heart leap in her chest and she would have been mortified at the smile Danny's words had caused to appear on her face were it not for the fact that they were alone and Danny's eyes were barely open. Clearing her throat, she removed any trace of emotion from her voice and face and turned to her number one ammo in emotional situations: sass. "Oh yeah? For getting Steve to shower? I thought I was gonna be fired for a second there, not gonna lie."

Danny snorted. "No, although you're a miracle worker for that."

"So then what?"

"For taking the risk. With Junes." Tani swallowed against the sudden lump in her throat. "You could have taken the easy way out and just kept it as flirting for the rest of your time with Five-O." Danny pierced her with his stare, its intensity lessened by the fact that she had yet to see him fully open his eyes since he'd awoken. "Whatever happens between the two of you, at least you're not doing the same dance ten years on, like a coward. You'll know you gave it a fair shot."

Tani inhaled sharply. It had always been the elephant in the room - one that she'd tried to bring up with Jerry, Lou, Adam when she'd felt just about comfortable and solid enough in Five-O to raise the topic of SteveandDanny but not there long enough to know it wasn't a question she should never have asked, only to be told that as far as anyone in the ohana was aware, it had always been Steve-and-Danny from the get-go, with no hints that they ever were, or had been, more. That for years, Five-O had watched Steve and Danny crash and burn in their love lives, or lack of, blind to what was literally across the bullpen from them. 

She opened her mouth but the words caught in her throat, not that she knew what she'd been planning to say. What was there to say? What could she have said? ‘Thank you, and sucks to be you’? She couldn't imagine working with Junior for so long and see him date other people, comfort him when those relationships went south, feeling as she did about him. It had taken her the better part of two years to realize that the only thing worse than finally giving in to her feelings for Junior and then have her wreck the relationship like she always did was having him die whilst on deployment, or on a case, or watch him marry and have kids with someone else with Junior ever knowing how she felt about him. 

Instead, Tani squeezed Danny's hand tighter, moisture gathering in her eyes, hoping her lack of words was enough to convey to Danny that she understood; that she’d been where he was. Not as long as he had, God no, but that she knew some of the pain, even if not the longevity of it. From the slight lifting of his lip in his token wry smile, she knew that he knew that she'd understood. Once again, she thanked whoever made it possible that Danny had survived, she didn’t even want to think back to the time in the waiting room when she’d been halfway convinced that the doctors would walk out any second to tell the team that they’d lost Danny. No matter how hard Lou had tried to get her to think positive and pray, she could read his own fear in his eyes, and in the tight way Steve had held himself, leaning against the wall of the waiting room, his back to his own team. 

“Danno.” Tani flinched at the sudden breaking of the silence and turned towards the voice to see a freshly showered and dressed Steve standing in the doorway of the bathroom, his hair still wet, the shadows under his eyes dark but a weight visibly lifted off of his shoulders as he took in the fact that his partner was awake. How long had he been standing there? 

Suddenly, she felt like an intruder in the room. Tani stood up and leaned over the bedrail, and pressed a kiss onto Danny’s forehead. “We’ll come by tomorrow, okay?” His hand squeezed hers in silent reply, an acknowledgment of the silent promise they’d made to not discuss what Danny had revealed to anyone else. 

Turning to Steve who had stepped closer to the bed and wrapped a hand around Danny’s ankle over the blanket, Tani pointed to the backpack by the bathroom door. “There’s a ham and cheese sandwich and some water and fruit in the front pocket. You should eat.”

Steve nodded, his eyes fixed on his partner. “Thanks, Tani. See you tomorrow.” 

She didn’t take the unspoken dismissal personally. With a last squeeze of Danny’s hand, she turned and left the room, gently pulling the door behind her. 

She had just about shut the door when Steve’s low voice carried over, his tone a mix of what could only be described as sorrowful underlined with a tinge of hope: “You think I’ve been taking the easy way out all these years?”

A smile broke her features, not bothering to hide it as she turned to where she’d left Junior, slouching against the wall opposite the hospital room door in a way that would have made his commanding officer furious had he been there to witness it. It had a tough day for them all. 

Junior straightened up as she made a bee-line for him, his eyebrows raising at whatever expression he saw on her face. “Tani? Something wrong?” An _oof_ left his body as she just about threw herself into him, his arms coming around to circle around her waist without hesitation even as she cupped the back of his head with her hands. 

“No,” she replied, pulling back a bit so she could look into his eyes. “Something’s great.” She bit back a laugh as her words only caused Junior to look more confused. “Come on, let’s go home.” 

Junior stepped back and grabbed her hand as they started making their way towards the exit after a nod at the HPD officer currently on duty just down the hallway from Danny’s room. “Danny okay? Steve?”

Tani smiled, her heart much lighter than when she’d entered the hospital half an hour ago. 

“They’re okay, but I get the feeling they’re going to be a lot better very soon.”

**Author's Note:**

> This could be _yet another_ fix it if you imagine the conversation Steve and Danny have after Tani leaves. I trust your imagination!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this fic; keep well, everyone.


End file.
